In order to respond to enquiries from this site, we ask for your name plus email address and / or phone number. This gives us the opportunity to personalise your reply and contact you using your prefered contact method.

This information is kept solely for the purpose of answering your original enquiry. Once the enquiry has been satisfactorily dealt with, your personal data are deleted permanently from the online database.

If we are unable to contact you and your enquiry remains incomplete for 180 days, the information is deleted, regardless of there having been no satisfactory conclusion to the enquiry.

Additional Data Held for Pupils

In order to book your driving test, it is necessary to retain your driving licence number. This, along with any other contact data that you have provided will be deleted on successful completion of your driving test or at the end of our specified data retention period.

Successful Candidate Photographs

When candidates pass their driving test, they will be asked for a photograph for promotional purposes. If verbal or written permission is given, the image will be displayed on our web site and in other promotional material until such permission is withdrawn.

Data held relating to customers

Making the reasonable assumption that having asked a question via our web site enquiry page, that you are entitled to and expect an answer, we claim your consent to reply by your chosen means, e.g. email or phone. Once your enquiry has been dealt with, we assume no further consent to use your personal data, which are then removed from the online database.

Invoice details will be retained in accordance with our legal obligation in respect of tax regulations.

Scope

This section defines the policy for managing data throughout Simon Hartley of (simons-driving-school.co.uk web site), hosted on a dedicated server located in the data centre belonging to Names Co Ltd.

Risks

Data held by the organisation for the purposes of carrying on its day to day business may be at risk of leakage or loss through the following means:

In order to minimise risks, the number of copies of data held is minimised, commensurate with protection against data loss. In this case, this means that no portable device is ever used as a data repository. All data relating to customers, prospects and enquirers is held on one of the dedicated web servers in the Names Co data centre. For day to day use, this is accessed via a single account that does not have root privileges. Only one person has the login credentials for this account. Only one person has login credentials for the root account on any of our servers.

Our database is held on servers used are all protected by firewalls, and all security patches or updates are applied as soon as they become available by the one person responsible for security.

Data Theft Through Hacking

All personally identifiable data is held on a dedicated web server located in the UK and maintained by Names Co. This is protected by a firewall which is updated regularly.

Access to the database that holds such data is also restricted by a separate login with different credentials to the root user, connection being made via https web pages. See General Considerations for the policy regarding password generation, which is applied to all systems used by Simon Hartley of , both on line and internally.

For disaster recovery purposes, the contents of the web server are backed up to a NAS unit in the main office. The backup is a snapshot of only the latest data and only the most recent backup file is retained in between weekly backup sessions, so that no obsolete data can be accessed or restored once removed from the main database (allowing a week of latency added to our regular data review cycle, as laid out in our Data Retention Term document).

Data access for employees is granted at a level where they can carry out the necessary procedures for their work through https web pages. These pages do not allow download of the database contents and nobody other than the responsible person has access to the database as root user.

Data Theft Through Equipment Loss
To prevent loss of data with equipment, no unlocked device that is used outside the office carries any sensitive data relating to the business or to the people that it deals with.

Damaged and End of Life Equipment
In the event of damage to equipment rendering it no longer serviceable, the hard drive will be removed and physically destroyed before disposal of the remaining hardware.

Where equipment has reached the end of its service life and is to be sold as used, the internal hard drive will either be replaced or completely erased and the OS replaced before sale.

Under the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right for all data held relating to yourself to be completely and permanently erased.

Note : Removal of all data may impact on our ability to provide a service to you.

The Regulation also provides for this information being removed from all backup copies and other repositories in the organisation. To ensure that this requirement is followed, Simon Hartley of adopts the following practices:

• Only one copy of the database exists for each day over the past 7 days. This is held on a remote server in a secure data centre
• For disaster recovery
• The backup is a snapshot of the most recent data for each day of the week.
• Every week that backup file is overwritten with the latest data
• In case of a backup being restored, the responsible individual is required to manually reconcile any RTBF requests that may have been overridden by the restoration

Please note that the database is backed up daily with each days backup held for one week so there will be a latency of seven days between removal from the active database and removal from all backup copies.

Your data is held until satisfactory conclusion of your enquiry or until you are no longer using our services.

Automated Processes

Enquiry info is held in the database for no more than 3 days. This is to ensure we can respond to them even if there is an issue with email delivery. No automated processing of data is carried out on the database holding your information, other than a regular check for expired data. To ensure compliance with our policies, every day, the database is queried for entries that are greater in age than the number of days laid out in our Data Retention Terms Policy.

If found, the record and all associated data are automatically deleted from the active database. The active database is backed up daily, overwriting the previous copy from the same day the week before, so there will be a latency between deleting from the active database and the backup version. This will mean a possible delay of a maximum of seven days before final eradication of over-age data.

NOTE : THEORY TEST CHANGES FROM 14th APRIL 2020

From 14 April 2020, the car theory test will include 3 multiple-choice questions based on a short video you'll watch.

How the theory test is changing to use video clips instead of written case studies
Currently, you have to read a case study and then answer 5 questions about it.

This tests your knowledge and understanding of road rules.

This will change if you take your test from 14 April 2020. You’ll watch one video clip instead of reading a case study, and answer 3 questions about it.

Your provisional licence

Before you can drive on a public road or take your theory test, you will need a valid Provisional Driving Licence. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) application form (Form D1) can be obtained from your local Post Office but you can also apply online from the official 'Gov UK' site.

Once you have your licence and are ready to start your lessons, you will need to provide proof that you have a valid licence.

You can apply for your provisional licence up to 3 months before your 17th Birthday but it will not be valid until you actually turn 17 so you will not be able to take lessons on a public road, or take your theory test until then.

You can apply for your first British provisional driving licence online if you:

Can provide addresses of where you have lived over the last three years.

As a photo is required for your licence the DVLA can use your passport photo if you have one. If you don't have one, or you want to use a different one, this will need to be sent to the DVLA separately.

Only once you have passed this can you apply to take your practical driving test.

Theory Test Multiple Choice Questions

The actual theory test questions are no longer published which means that those found in revision materials of any kind will give you an idea of the questions and answers to expect but will NOT be exactly the same as those you will face during the test itself.

This change was introduced to ensure you gain a better understanding of driving theory rather than simply memorising questions and answers.

Hazard perception

Before you start the hazard perception part of the test, you'll be shown a short video clip about how it works before being shown a series of video clips on a computer screen. The clips
feature everyday road scenes and contain at least one developing hazard - but one of the clips will feature two developing hazards.

A developing hazard is something that may result in you having to take some action, such as changing speed or direction and what you need to do is identify these as early as possible to get as high a score as possible (max 5 per clip).

The Practical Test

Once your driving has reached a suitable level, you will want to get your driving test booked. The timescale for bookings can vary one month to the next depending on the number of other learners applying around the same time. You should not just go ahead and book the test before checking that a car will be available first!

During the 'independent driving' section of the test you will be asked to follow a Sat Nav or, one in 5 tests will follow road signs for around 20 minutes to see how well you deal with driving without being prompted by your examiner.